I sometimes get this at boot-time. DHCP does a four-way handshake when negotiating the IP address lease & DHCPDISCOVER is the first step issued by the client waiting for a DHCP server to reply. If the server does not respond before timing out, the simplest action to take next is simply initiate the handshake again via:

Hello once again ocicat.I have already tried that yet i get the same message with different intervals.My /etc/hostname.em0 has only "dhcp" nothing else.
could that be the problem?I tried the example on the FAQ and i also could not make it work.

I forgot to mention that the em0 interface is not the one used when i installed obsd.I had my hdisk attached to another pc(using an external case) to make the installation since my X60 has no cd drive.The interface that the system used to download and install obsd was nfe0.I hope this information helps.

My /etc/hostname.em0 has only "dhcp" nothing else.
could that be the problem?

No.

Quote:

I forgot to mention that the em0 interface is not the one used when i installed obsd.

This shouldn't matter.

You can always run tcpdump(8) on em0 to watch the packet traffic coming into the interface, but I suspect what you are going to see is that the client is broadcasting its initial request, & no server response is coming back in a timely manner. Depending upon the hardware used & the time of day, DHCP servers may be overloaded servicing other requests.

Peripherally, I don't know how you are connecting to the Internet, but if you are attaching your laptop directly, you may want to reset the modem/router used to attach to your ISP. In particular, the cable modem I use caches the MAC address of whatever device is attached. If I change which computer is attached to the modem, I have to turn the modem off, wait ~8 seconds, then turn it back on to ensure that the previous MAC address is not still being used before I can connect to the Internet again.

By physical connectivity, I mean functioning Ethernet cables/connectors, and functioning NICs. You need bits to be able to flow along wires, before DHCP will work.

1) Are there status indicator LEDs for the NIC at either end of your Ethernet connection? If so, that will show whether the NICs are seeing electrical connections. 2) Check your Ethernet cabling -- bad cables/connectors are not uncommon. 3) Use an alternate port on your hub/switch/router if available, as NICs on such equipment can fail. 4) Swap NICs on your computer, if you can.

If i reset my router,after i set the username and password, do i have to do anything else to have a working interface?Or just by re-entering username and password everything's ok?

I can only assume you are talking about setting the username & password on your router. This isn't something standardized, so you will have to either read the documentation coming with the router or experiment on your own.

I can only assume you are talking about setting the username & password on your router. This isn't something standardized, so you will have to either read the documentation coming with the router or experiment on your own.

Yeap,that's what i'm talking about.I 'll take a look to the documentation just to be ready.